KUCHING: The Federal Ministry of Education (MoE) has agreed to devolve education-related powers to the Sarawak government.
Sarawak Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development, Datuk Dr Annuar Rapa’ee said the Sarawak Government has presented 15 comprehensive matters to the Federal government as part of negotiations under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

He noted that it aims at devolving powers in education, particularly within the scope of Paragraph 17 of the Inter-Governmental Committee Report (IGC) 1962.

“I would like to share the significant progress made in these discussions. Firstly, the Director of Education Sarawak is now empowered to approve school development projects funded by the Sarawak government or other parties in Sarawak.

“This means that approval no longer need to go through Putrajaya. This will undoubtedly improve the process and facilitate the implementation of projects funded by the state government,” he said.

He made these remarks while responding to a question from Meradong Assemblyman, Datuk Ding Kuong Hiing during the 19th Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (DUN) session on Thursday.

Datuk Dr Annuar added that the Sarawak government is also allowed to extend the use of English as the medium of instruction not only in primary schools but also in secondary schools, especially in the subjects of Additional Mathematics, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry.

Furthermore, the Sarawak government is permitted to provide sufficient funding for teacher development programs and to access data within MoE, he said. -UKASnews